“And what of the rest of us?” Emily asked quietly. “We cannot stand beneath trees every time it rains.”
Margaret felt the truth of that and did not deny it.
“They will not soften for me,” Emily said. “Or for Poppy. We will remain the family who required rescue.”
“No one rescued us.”
“No?”
“No.”
“He is powerful. He is wealthy. He has placed gowns on our backs. I want you to be happy, Margaret, but I cannot be utterly overjoyed about it at all times, no matter how much you might want me to be.”
“I am not asking that of you. I know that it may seem like too much too soon, but it is necessary.”
“But I do not like it.”
“Why not?”
Margaret wished to be patient, but she had grown exasperated. She had done everything that she could, and she was continuing to make sacrifices for their family, and she hated that her sister could not see that.
“Because I do not know where that leaves us.”
There it was. It was not jealousy, but fear. Margaret felt something in her chest shift painfully.
“You will not be left,” she said.
“That is easy to promise.”
“I do not promise lightly. Emily, I cannot undo the past, but I can alter the future.”
“For whom?”
“For you,” Margaret said firmly. “For Poppy. For this house.”
Emily’s expression wavered. Silence fell again, and her sister looked exhausted now rather than angry.
“I do not begrudge you happiness,” she said at last. “I begrudge the distance it creates.”
Margaret stepped forward and took her sister’s hands before she could withdraw.
“There will be no distance,” she said quietly.
Emily searched her face, as though trying to decide whether that was naive or defiant. Whichever it was, Margaret intended to keep to it.
“They already speak as though you are gone,” she murmured.
“And yet I am still here,” she said.
“For now.”
The words lingered between them. Margaret tightened her grip slightly.
“I will not allow them to divide us.”
Emily’s eyes softened, though doubt remained. Downstairs, the parlor room door closed. Poppy’s laughter drifted faintly upward, reminding Margaret that she had so much to protect.
“I will not forget where we began,” she said quietly.
